THE BURNING BUSH Miniseries PRESS CLIPPING Agnieszka Holland, Burning Bush 29 January, 2013 | By Geoffrey Macnab The Polish director talks to Geoffrey Macnab about her three part . Holland agreed with the decision, reckoning that a three part series would drama series for HBO Europe. enable her to give “this quiet chamber story an epic dimension.” Polish director Agnieszka Holland has had a wildly varied career Holland jokes that when she makes movies, her backers always tell her encompassing everything from European arthouse films (Europa Europa, A Lonely Woman, Angry Harvest) to episodes of The Wire, they are too long. For example, the first cut of In Darkness was over four Cold Case, The Killing and Treme. Her collaborators have ranged from hours long. With Burning Bush, though, she had “the luxury of the format” Krzysztof Kieslwoski and Andrzej Wajda to David Simon and Fred and could take time to tell the story. Roos. Last year, her 2011 feature In Darkness received an Oscar nomination. Now, Holland has directed Burning Bush, a three part drama series for HBO Europe. This is inspired by the actions of Jan The series, she argues, will give young Czechs the chance to “look back Palach, a 21-year-old student who set himself on fire in Wenceslas and figure out their identity” and think about the part that the Palach Square in Prague in 1969 as a protest against the communist regime incident had in shaping their national identity. She believes the drama is and the occupation of Prague by Soviet bloc armies. He died of his the first to address these issues in depth and that it offers a truthful portrait injuries four days later. of “Post-Stalin society behind the Iron Curtain.” “They (HBO) are on both sides of the ocean,” she reflects on working with Burning Bush will be shown at International Film Festival Rotterdam later this month. There are plans afoot for the series to be screened in HBO’s new arm in Prague having made so much drama for the US parent selected cinemas in Prague and possibly in Poland. company. “They are in some ways similar. The philosophy of HBO here (in Speaking from New Orleans, Holland points out that the actions of the US) and there (in Europe) is quite similar. Palach have a very strong personal resonance for her. Holland, now 64, was a student in Prague in the late 1960s and was heavily involved “They want to do ambitious fiction work based quite often on reality or in the student protest movement at the time of the “Prague Spring” (the period in the late 60s when the Czechs tried to cast off the Soviet history. They don’t want to be conventional in their approach to the subject shackles). “I was like 20. It was my first important life, political and and they give relatively big creative freedom to the director and writers. At historical experience,” she declares. “It was something which formed the same time, they give quite a substantial amount of money. Of course, me in some way for the future. My view of society and people was very not everything HBO does speaks to me as a director but everything I have much shaped by this experience. It was, in some way, an incredible gift that I was able to come back to this.” done (for them) has been very interesting and enriching.” No, when she Burning Bush was scripted by Štěpán Hulík, a young Czech writer who was a young director in Solidarity-era Poland in the late 1970s, she didn’t finished a first draft on spec. The script ended up being sent separately imagine that, 30 years later, she would be helming episodes of a cop series to both Holland and HBO. She responded very positively. (“I was in Baltimore (The Wire). surprised that young people were able to write something so accurate and so true about this event.”) HBO was likewise enthusiastic and wanted to commission a mini-series. “But HBO was the place - and still is - where you are able to make the films and TV series that are much more complex and innovative stylistically and in terms of the subject, in writing and casting than most other productions - including Hollywood and a lot of independent productions,” the Polish auteur enthuses. “HBO suddenly opened up the windows for many things that had been untold before.” She describes The Wire as being like “the great American novel” and points to its ethical dimension and complexity. Not many movies (she adds) have the same ambition. As ever, Holland has several new projects for small screen and big screen on the boil. Among the feature film projects is an adaptation of Drive Your Plough Over The Bones Of The Dead, (Prowadź swój pług przez kości umarłych), a novel by leading contemporary Polish writer Olga Tokarczuk. This is being produced through Tor Film and she hopes to start shooting before the end of the year. Holland claims she never set out to work in the US and that she has always simply followed the best material. “I was very happy making Polish movies. Still now, American movies are not my ambition. I am doing movies where I can find the interesting subjects, the money and the craft.” As for Burning Bush, which is executive produced by Antony Root for HBO Europe, she believes it is the kind of TV drama that the region desperately needs. “The radio and television in most (formerly) communist countries is very bad. It’s really weak…the level is generally very low. HBO takes it much, much higher and opens up the ambitions and the appetites of the audience as well.” HBO's 'Burning Bush' to play at Rotterdam Agnieszka Holland helmed miniseries gets fest berth By WILL TIZARD PRAGUE -- Polish helmer Agnieszka Holland's miniseries "Burning Bush" is to make its international debut at the Rotterdam Film Festival, the latest TV drama to play at a leading sprocket opera. The HBO Europe three-parter, which centers on the suicide of Czech dissident Jan Palach in 1969, will screen at the fest Jan. 30, following its world preem in Prague on Jan. 27. The drama follows the legal and political aftermath of Palach's self- immolation in Wenceslas Square as a protest against the Soviet- backed regime. Slovak thesp Tatiana Pauhofova toplines as the attorney who fought to protect Palach's reputation after the regime tried to discredit him. Holland made her international breakthrough with "Europa Europa" in 1990. She has also helmed episodes of HBO skeins "The Wire" and "Treme." HBO Netherlands will air the first episode of "Burning Bush" on Feb. 5, and the remaining 13 countries reached by HBO Europe will begin airing it in March. The Rotterdam fest will also screen HBO's "Girls," and HBO Latin America's "Profugos." High-budget TV dramas are increasingly finding berths at the top film festivals. Jane Campion's "Top of the Lake," for example, plays at the Berlinale next month. HBO Europe on the hunt for UK indies’ drama formats 17 January, 2013 | By Peter White HBO Europe has called for UK indies to bring it scripted drama formats as it looks to expand its original programming strategy. The company, which operates premium channels across Central and Eastern Europe, is searching for scripted formats to replicate the success of its local versions of psychological drama In Treatment. Anthony Root, executive vice president, original programming and production, HBO Europe, said the broadcaster was looking for returnable drama and event mini-series to produce across Hungary, Czech Republic, Poland and Romania. He said he was in talks with indie producers in the UK and hopes to find between fi ve and 10 scripted formats to produce locally. “We hope there are some shows that have been produced in the UK that have not achieved huge international distribution, which could be right for us,” said Root. “We are scouring the market for formats that fi t our criteria. I think it is likely that we will find something out of the UK.” As well as local versions of In Treatment, the broadcaster has remade Armoza Formats’ Israeli drama When Shall We Kiss and is in development with cop drama The Naked Truth, which is also being adapted in the US by its parent company HBO. “We have the funds to do what we want,” said the former Sony Pictures Television exec. This hunt for formats comes ahead of the launch of 3 x 80-minute mini-series Burning Bush, which has been produced by Czech indie Nutprodukce. The period drama, set in Prague in 1969, is directed by Agnieszka Holland, who has worked on US series The Killing and The Wire. Root said HBO Europe was also keen to hear from British documentary producers that could coproduce factual commissions in the region. The company produces around 12 documentaries a year and is keen to partner with international fi rms. HBO Europe started making original shows six years ago, but its “It does something great TV drama, and HBO drama, does: it upcoming miniseries Burning Bush marks a new level of budget and surprises the audience,” says Antony Root, the ex-Sony and Granada ambition. Director Agnieszka Holland tells TBI about her work on the executive who, since early-2011, has been executive VP, original show, HBO’s content boss Antony Root talks about how the original programming strategy will evolve and HBO Europe boss Linda programming and production at HBO Europe. “The audience thinks Jensen explains how the drive into big-ticket originals works in this is a film about Jan Palach, but it’s really a longer look at events tandem with the premium network’s roll out of HBO Go.